I need to divide this seedling...

I don't want to get poison ivy!

I've never had it before.

I am turning one bed back to lawn. In this bed is a large clump of one of my tet seedlings that needs divided when I move it to the new area.

It has poison ivy growing right in the center of it. The past 3 or 4 years I have been trying to kill the poison ivy. I've bent the vine down to the ground away from the daylily and sprayed it with ivy killer, painted it with strong round-up, tried many things. Nothing worked. It is back bigger than ever.

I planned to divide the daylily this month. But the poison ivy is at least 2-1/2 feet tall in it. Very healthy looking. Has sent runners out 4 feet long.

It is rather intimidating.



Even though I hoped to have all of the plants out of this bed by winter - I am considering leaving this daylily until spring. Let winter kill off the poison ivy foliage. In January, when the foliage is frozen, I can dispose of it and clean around the clump. I will still have to be careful. Then if I divide the daylily in early spring when the ground thaws, I would minimize my exposure to the oil in the poison ivy leaves. I really don't know what else to do. I don't want to chance getting the rash. I've got to come up with something. The seedling is one of my favorites so I want to try to save at least one or two fans. I'd like to save several double fans if I can.

I don't know what poison ivy roots look like. I hope I will be able to easily tell the daylily fans from the poison ivy roots. I try to take care of poison ivy in the beds when it is only a couple inches tall. Not a couple feet tall. I think the oil is in the roots too, so I would still need to be careful.

I have a pair of gloves that I can wear and then throw away.

I've grown daylilies for 30 years. But this is a new problem for me. I've pulled dandelion, nutsedge, all kinds of weeds growing in the clumps - but never had to deal with poison ivy. Especially one that has been so hard to kill as this one has been. The good thing is that I must not be particularly allergic to it.

Anyone else have suggestions for me? Have any experience with a daylily with a case of poison ivy?

Any other advice for me to so I can avoid getting the rash and save the daylily?

Thanks!

Being sensitive to PI myself, I try to gear up as much as possible. The best way to totally eradicate the PI is to dig it up. My advice - put on a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, shoes and socks and put on some gloves. Dig up the whole clump, getting as many PI roots as you can without touching it with your hands. Next - do you have any plastic bags from the store or newspaper? Put these on over your gloves and up over your shirt-sleeved arms. Now you have a double layer of protection. With your hands still doubly-encased, Pick apart the clump, getting as much of the PI roots that you can. I generally put the PI into another trash bag and put it in the garbage. Do not burn or compost it. You can also peel the bags off your hands and throw in the trash. I would then put another set of clean bags over your gloves to divide the daylily. Remember that the daylily will have some of the PI plant oil on it as well as your shovel or spade. When you're done, hose off your shovel and the daylily divisions with water. Discard the second set of plastic bags. Don't handle the plant divisions with bare hands for a while, always wearing gloves or plastic bags. Remember to wash your shirt, gloves, etc and best to wash your skin as soon as possible just in case there was accidental contact. Might seem like overkill and you may end up not being sensitive to PI but it's worth the effort not to suffer from a possible rash.

I have problems with poison ivy also. When it's that close to a daylily I just pull it. I agree with what Cindy says as to wearing as much protection as possible. I'd suggest buying some elbow length rubber gloves. I have a pair just for pulling PI and they are very easy to clean compared to regular gardening gloves. You should be able to find some in the grocery store. Good luck!

hi Juli,

I would try to cut of as much of the vines as you can, using a long-handled cutter, than dig up the clump, divide it and pull out the rest of the PI
Make sure you get ALL the roots out, or it will grow back
Don't throw in on your compostheap! Dispose of it in your trash or burn it.

Oh, and you might want to consider wearing this while doing all that....

Please don't burn PI. The plant oil can get into the air with the smoke and cause some serious issues when it's inhaled or settles on unprotected skin.

Mayo, that suit is funny! It's exactly what my husband needs. I swear he breaks out in a horrible rash, just from walking past poison ivy. I'm not allergic, but he didn't believe me. I finally rubbed some on my arm two weeks ago, and nothing happened, just as expected. I'm a fool for proving my point. I'm now in charge of all poison ivy removal on our property.

Juli, if you touched the plant with bare hands before spraying, or when bending it over, and didn't get a rash, I'd say that you aren't allergic. Every part of the plant has the oil, so just touching the roots can cause a rash. Like everyone suggested, protection is the key, and wearing long rubber gloves is your best bet. I'd also suggest eye protection. Wouldn't want to get any of that oil in your eyes.

I seem to get a bad rash each year. I would follow the advice of others in the posts above...

And...if you do get the rash, call your doctor and don't mess with the OTC treatments at the pharmacy. My doctor prescribes prednisone, which dries up the rash in one to two days. You will have to take the meds a while longer to keep it from returning, but it's the best treatment by far of any that I have tried.

Hopefully he double layering will help, but thought I would share this in case anyone else gets it as much as I do. I can look at it and it hops onto my skin!

They do sell a great over the counter product for it, and it works really well. It's tecnu Rash Relief, which is a spray to help with itching, and there is also a wash, called tecnu Original Outdoor Skin Cleanser. It removed the oils, and works great. You just need to wash with it right away. These products weren't cheap, but they were the only thing that actually worked. Got them at Walmart, after talking to the pharmacist. It was the only store in the city that had anything besides calamine lotion, which does no good at all.

I use both technu products as well, one to help prevent and the other to relieve the burning/ itching; they just give limited relief for me and don't help the rash go away. I'm just highly allergic, so have to have something in addition to topicals.

For possible skin exposure, hold under cold water for about 20 seconds (closes up skin pores) and then wash with any special cleansers. If I happen to get a rash, Benadryl in stick form is nice to have. Relieves itch for several hours and you can carry it with you.

Shadegardener said:Please don't burn PI. The plant oil can get into the air with the smoke and cause some serious issues when it's inhaled or settles on unprotected skin.

ah... I didn't know that!
I live in The Netherlands and we don't have Poison Ivy..
Burning is what I would do with any other very invasive weeds

so: NO burning PI!!

Mayo

I'm so allergic to poison ivy I didn't even click on this thread ... Wait a minute, wait a minute! Darn, now I've gotta go take another shower!

Here in New Mexico at 8,000 feet elevation we don't have poison ivy, oak, or sumac. In Oklahoma however,I was walking carefully down a stream bed (dry season) with my handy PI spray checking each bank and I suddenly had a creepy premonition. I slowly looked up and not 12 inches above my head was a big tendril of the stuff hanging down from a vine that had grown at least fifteen feet up an oak tree, out a branch over the stream and was slowly lowering itself like a character from Mission Impossible!

The birds, who are not allergic to the stuff, spread it all over the place. Keeping a careful watch and getting it early helps.

Maybe you should hope for proliferations and just not mess with the root ball.

Charley

I'll respond to everyone more later on…. but a couple quick things….

this poison ivy is growing right out of the center of this clump and has been for at least a couple of years. Just grabbing it and pulling it is not going to take care of it. It has dug it's heels in and intends to stay put. I am quite convinced of that after doing battle with it unsuccessfully the last couple of years.

The seedling is also quite tenacious and is not giving up and is giving it a run for it's money. It did not rebloom this year, though, for the first time in years.

It seems that so far everyone thinks I should take it on this fall and not wait to clear away the foliage over winter and dig the clump in spring when there will be less green poison ivy foliage above ground ??

great ideas so far and things I did not think of!!!

As others have said, I keep a good supply of Technu handy, and I also keep a pack of the disposable nitrile gloves in the garage. Birds drop poison ivy seeds in the garden from time to time. If I ever see it, I put the gloves on, pull the poison ivy, dispose of it AND the gloves in a plastic bag, seal and throw away! If you are going to be working with a plant where there is even a remote chance it is in the roots, wear long pants and sleeves, and immediately after working with it, come inside, carefully strip off the outer clothing after disposing of any possible roots carefully. Wash the clothes and ( I say this because I am very allergic and have learned this lesson the hard way several times!) then rinse off your arms-get your wrists well or any area which could have been possibly exposed, with Technu. I swear by that stuff!! Right now,even with these precautions, I have a couple of places on each arm where a very mild case is almost dried up. W/o the Technu. I would surely have to have gotten steroids from the DR!!

Mayo - you're welcome. I've heard horror stories of folks that have burned it and inhaled the smoke. Inside the body, it's hard to treat. Maybe like a severe allergic reaction? One reason I stay far away from controlled burn sites in my area.

I am another one that is very allergic to PI. My cat used to share it with me when he'd go out and then come back in and do the figure 8 around my ankles and legs......

Anyways, anytime I am outside doing a lot of clearing, and I suspect that there may be PI in the area, I am meticulous about coming in and immediately removing my clothing and washing up in the shower with tepid water AND dishsoap. Once I get a good lather on my arms, legs, face and neck, I actually turn off the water and wait 3-5 minutes and let the lather help deactivate the oils and pull them into the suds. Then I do a very thorough rince off.

I have been told that Dawn works the best, but I use whatever I have and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than Tecnu and I really think that it works so much better.

I have a PI vine growing up a fence post 10' tall and hanging down over a DL bed. I have brushed against it when hybridizing and collecting seed pods but PI really does not bother me. I just have to keep Ashton and family away from it. When I was making the bed several years ago, I was pulling all the grass and weeds and realized that I had been pulling up PI with bare hands as well. When I checked my piles of debris there was lots of small PI plants. It did leave a couple of small pink bumps between my fingers that itched a little. I guess PI grows all over the country. Everyone here has it growing except Charley in NM.
I would put on long sleeves and gloves and dig the DL and clean it but that is just me .
I have cut my PI vine off near the ground and treated with with some killer but it came back.
I think things like pests of any kind should be conquered and it is on my list to get rid of somehow.
The spring after I made all my first seedling beds we had hundreds of Black Widow spiders in our landscape borders. Another year the sand scorpions were everywhere. You could flip a rock and find a half dozen. We don't find as many in the gardens any more, but I did get stung by a scorpion this spring - ouch.
Gardening is so much fun (and work) no matter the challenges.
Terry

Terry - Interesting that you mentioned scorpions. We used to have them here when we first moved into our home after it was built. But I have not seen a scorpion in years! I forgot all about those little bugs. I see brown widow spiders here, but haven't seen any black widow spiders. The worst is the brown recluse spider. Those can do some nasty damage to flesh.

If there is any poison ivy around, I've not seen it. And I haven't had any skin rashes, so I guess I am safe for now. I get other annoying vines and trees, but not PI.

We all face various challenges, don't we? I have PI here, but Roundup seems to kill it back. Once it's dead-looking, using gloves, I pull it up,
place it in a plastic bag, tie up securely and put it in the trash. The rash is no fun. Maybe I have a wimpy cultivar of PI

I never realized how large the roots can get, until my husband recently enlarged my daylily garden. He had to cut into the side of a hill with the tractor, and found huge roots. He said they were from a wild rose bush, but to me, the rose bush was way too far away to have roots that large that were that far way. When it started growing, it was PI! The roots are close to the size of a garden hose! I guess that is why pulling it hasn't worked so well here!